Poseida Therapeutics Presents on the Development of Allogeneic and Autologous BCMA-Specific CAR-T Therapies at Precision: Blood Cancer Summit

SAN DIEGO, Nov. 14, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Poseida Therapeutics, Inc. (“Poseida”), a San Diego-based company translating best-in-class gene engineering technologies into lifesaving cell therapies, will participate today in a presentation on the development of its two anti-BCMA CAR-T programs: P-BCMA-101, the company’s BCMA-specific CAR-T drug candidate in a Phase 1 clinical trial for the treatment of multiple myeloma, and P-BCMA-ALLO1, the company’s universal CAR-T program also targeting BCMA in hematologic cancers.

The presentation expands on the anti-BCMA CAR-T development programs featuring Poseida’s proprietary piggyBac™ non-viral gene delivery system and Centyrin™ binding domain. P-BCMA-101 exhibits no signs of CAR-mediated ‘tonic signaling’, which has been described to occur for some traditional single chain variable fragment (scFv)-based CARs and can lead to diminished function and poor durability. Greater persistence of P-BCMA-101 may also be facilitated by an exceptionally high percentage (>70%) of the highly desirable stem cell memory T cell subtype (Tscm), a cell type recently discovered to be extremely long-lived and capable of giving rise to large amounts of potent tumor killing T cells upon tumor cell detection.

The discussion also features the development of an allogeneic anti-BCMA CAR-T therapy, called P-BCMA-ALLO1, produced with Poseida’s piggyBac™ DNA Modification System and proprietary NextGEN™ CRISPR site-specific nucleases. These cells express the same transgenic elements of P-BCMA-101 including a safety switch, a BCMA-specific CAR and a positive selection gene, but lack expression of endogenous T cell receptor and beta-2 microglobulin, two major proteins associated with alloreactivity. In addition, data show that gene editing of P-BCMA-ALLO1 cells does not reduce their ability to kill tumor cells in vitro.

The presentation titled “P-BCMA-101: A BCMA-Specific CAR-T Stem Cell Memory Therapy for Multiple Myeloma” by Devon J. Shedlock, Ph.D., vice president of preclinical development at Poseida, takes place today at 2:30 p.m. PT at the Precision: Blood Cancer Summit 2017 in San Francisco.

About P-BCMA-101P-BCMA-101 is a CAR-T immunotherapy designed to supercharge a patient’s own T cells to safely and effectively eliminate tumor cells carrying B cell maturation antigen (BCMA), which is expressed on essentially all multiple myeloma cells. P-BCMA-101 modifies a patient’s T cells using piggyBac™, which enables several desirable features, including:

T stem cell memory: P-BCMA-101 is comprised of an exceptionally high proportion of stem cell memory T cells, resulting in unprecedented durability of response without re-administration of product in multiple preclinical studies.

Pure product: The addition of a human-derived positive selection gene results in a product that is essentially 100% pure in contrast with lentivirus-based products, which are generally 5-30% pure.

Safety: piggyBac™ has safer integration profile than lentivirus and is non-oncogenic. In addition, a human-derived safety switch is added such that P-BCMA-101 can be rapidly attenuated or eliminated if significant side effects occur.

Additional information about the Phase 1 clinical study of P-BCMA-101 is available at www.clinicaltrials.gov using identifier: NCT03288493

About Poseida Therapeutics, Inc. Poseida Therapeutics is translating best-in-class gene engineering technologies into lifesaving cell therapies. The company is developing CAR T-cell immunotherapies for multiple myeloma, prostate and other cancer types, as well as gene therapies for orphan diseases. Poseida has assembled a suite of industry-leading gene engineering technologies, including the piggyBac™ DNA Modification System, XTN™ TALEN and NextGEN™ CRISPR site-specific nucleases, and Footprint-Free™ Gene Editing (FFGE). For more information, visit www.poseida.com.

More From BioPortfolio on "Poseida Therapeutics Presents on the Development of Allogeneic and Autologous BCMA-Specific CAR-T Therapies at Precision: Blood Cancer Summit"

Relevant Topics

BioinformaticsBioinformatics is the application of computer software and hardware to the management of biological data to create useful information. Computers are used to gather, store, analyze and integrate biological and genetic information which can then be applied...

PharmacyPharmacy is the science and technique of preparing as well as dispensing drugs and medicines. It is a health profession that links health sciences with chemical sciences and aims to ensure the safe and effective use of pharmaceutical drugs.
The scope of...